Level: Sous Chef

Scoolinary episode:

Dog Cake & Kotlovina – Celebrating a Dachshund’s Birthday! 🎂🐾

At Scoolinary Academy, I’ve learned many things, but I never expected my biggest challenge would be preparing a cake for a dog. My dachshund Coco recently celebrated his first birthday, so as the “child” of a serious Scoolinary student, he deserved a treat worthy of a little gourmand.

Especially for him, I created a festive dog-friendly cake: a base of cooked rice, tender boiled chicken, and sweet carrots, decorated with a layer of boiled spinach bound by natural rice starch serving as gelatin. To perfect the plating and demonstrate my academy-learned skills, I topped it with grated fresh carrot. Coco and his two dachshund friends were delighted, at least judging by how quickly the cake disappeared, which surely means I passed the test!

For the adult guests, however, I prepared something entirely different – Kotlovina, a traditional Croatian dish rarely found on Serbian menus, making it a real gastronomic adventure for my friends. Kotlovina is part of my Croatian heritage, a dish I’ve carefully perfected over many years and proudly preserved as a culinary secret.

The concept behind Kotlovina is straightforward: in a large, shallow metal pan (known as a “kotlić” or “kotlovina plate”), various meats are quickly seared in pork lard. In this case, I chose smoked bacon, homemade sausages, juicy pork neck, and deboned chicken thighs. Once the meat is briefly and vigorously seared just enough to seal in juices, it’s moved to the edges of the pan. Then vegetables like onions, carrots, red bell peppers, and tomatoes are sautéed in the center, generously deglazed with homemade broth and white wine, until a thick, aromatic sauce forms. The meat is then returned to simmer gently until perfectly tender, maintaining a crispy exterior and succulent interior. Optionally, beans, mushrooms, or parboiled potatoes can be added toward the end, but this time I kept it simple with basic vegetables.

Alongside the Kotlovina, we served golden crispy potato wedges and a refreshing cabbage and cucumber salad… a perfect balance to the rich flavors. We also grilled fresh corn on the cob, just to add that irresistible summer touch to our celebration. And we enjoyed an authentic Olivier salad brought by a friend from Russia. Interestingly, this salad is also very popular and frequently served at celebrations in Serbia, yet curiously in Croatia, it’s mysteriously called “French salad,” with the only notable difference being the absence of meat.

For dessert, I returned to my newly beloved discipline of ice cream making, so the guests enjoyed two homemade flavors: Chocolate and Malaga, because true Scoolinary students know no proper celebration ends without something sweet.

In short, it seems I passed my culinary exams celebrating Coco’s birthday, while he passed his own maturity test (well, that second part might still be debatable).

🐾✨ Bon Appétit on all fours! ✨🐾

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